Maureen Faulkner, widow of Daniel Faulkner, the officer killed by Mumia Abu Jamal 30 years ago tomorrow, has issued a statement about the decision to forego a re-sentencing hearing for Abu Jamal. Her statement is reproduced below: contrary to some media coverage, she did not agree quietly to the decision to release her husband’s killer from his death sentence. Instead, she has understandably lost all faith in the justice system, and she does not believe “Mumia” would ever really be executed.

The Faulkner family has been under continuous attack for three decades by an astonishing cabal of the malicious and the misinformed. Most in the media are assuming, wrongly, that Mumia’s followers will now drift off to other causes. There’s no chance of that happening. Amnesty International announced that appeals were continuing for Mumia. When Amnesty mentions “international fair trial standards” below, what they mean is that they will continue to try to impose United Nations laws on our country to aid cop-killers. From theAP:

Amnesty International, which maintains that Abu-Jamal’s trial was “manifestly unfair and failed to meet international fair trial standards,” said the district attorney’s decision [to remove Abu Jamal from death row] does not go far enough. Abu-Jamal still has an appeal pending before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court over the validity of ballistics evidence.

“Amnesty International continues to believe that justice would best be served by granting Mumia Abu-Jamal a new trial,” said Laura Moye, director of the human rights group’s Campaign to Abolish the Death Penalty.

It’s not really about the death penalty. Once that is abolished, not a single activist will go home. What do you think they’re going to do: announce that America is now a fair place and quit their jobs? No, they’ll continue to bleed our justice system dry until they overturn life-without-parole, and then move on every other sentencing rule that keeps killers and rapists off the streets. We’re in an arms race, and the anti-incarceration activists are winning, not least because we have to subsidize their activism in addition to defending against it.

Meanwhile, the Mumia cultists at Amnesty International issued a press release that calls law enforcement’s support for their fallen colleague “unseemly.” You’d think they could have been a bit more sensitive on the 30th anniversary of Daniel Faulkner’s murder. For the holidays, Amnesty’s also selling baby onesies, in case you want to turn your toddler into an advertisement for people who murder police:

“All Rights for All People.” How cute. Except cops, of course.

Here’s a whimsical poster from their gift catalog depicting a police officer clubbing a kid, $8:

And in case your adolescents are feeling too much pride over being American, here’s a tee-shirt for them, and a map that “turns the world upside down to challenge North-South perceptions”:

Don’t you feel less better now?

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To get a taste of what Maureen Faulkner has gone through, there is a 1999 article written by her posted on the very interesting website, Pro-Death Penalty. Today, Faulkner posted the following statement on her own website. It’s damning. Too bad the media wasn’t interested in giving her space to say it, considering all the space they lavish on Abu Jamal’s claims:

Statement from Maureen Faulkner

After enduring 30 years of emotional and physical hell as I’ve suffered through the appeals process, I am now convinced that when a death sentence is at issue, the judges of the Federal District Courts and the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals simply do as they want, not as the law dictates. Judges Yohn, Scirica, Cowen and Ambro oppose the death penalty, so they shape the law to suit their personal needs. This isn’t just me venting. It’s a fact that’s supported by the numbers. The dirty little secret about the death penalty in Pennsylvania that nobody wants to come to grips with is that since the death penalty was re-instated by the U. S. Supreme Court in 1976, there have been hundreds of death sentences imposed by Pennsylvania juries. Yet, after three decades of trying, not a single one of them– including my husband’s case — has managed to successfully make it through the Federal appeals gauntlet. How is it possible that over the course of three decades all District Attorneys combined have gone 0 for several hundred on their appeals?

The disgusting reality with the death penalty in Pennsylvania is that the fix is in before the hearings even begin, and federal judges, including the 4 dishonest cowards who presided over my husband’s case, are the fixers.

My family and I have endured a three-decade ordeal at the hands of Mumia Abu-Jamal, his attorneys and his supporters; who in many cases never even took the time to educate themselves about the case before lending their names, giving their support and advocating for his freedom. All of this has taken an unimaginable physical, emotional and financial toll on each of us. Over the past few months, we have anguished over the two terrible options we are presented with. Should we choose a new sentencing hearing, it would undoubtedly take months to complete and come at an extreme cost to the citizens of Philadelphia. It will undoubtedly be a venue for every fringe group imaginable. Droves of sleazy Human Rights lawyerswill want to weigh in with amicus briefs. The list of character witnesses for Abu-Jamal would be a rouges gallery of the Hate America First crowd, and unlike he did at the 1982 sentencing hearing, this time around he will undoubtedly keep his vile mouth shut and portray the image of “a man filled with soulful humanity” as his former attorney once described him and not the seething animal he was at the 1982 hearing. The damning testimony of several key eyewitness who are now deceased will have to be read to the jury without emotion and the District Attorney will have the unenviable challenge of seating an impartial jury without being duped by even a single person who intends to nullify the death sentence. Should the jury decide on a death sentence again as they should, we would then start the whole decades-long appeals process over again, and we will be forced to repeat the past 30 years as if they never happened.

Given that we would be forced back into the same foul legal system that has failed us for so long and the morally dishonest judges we would undoubtedly be confronted with if there were a new sentencing hearing, we have asked Seth Williams to deny such a hearing and agree to have Mumia Abu-Jamal’s sentence be reduced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

This decision certainly does not mark the end of my journey, nor will I stop fighting to see justice done for my husband. Rest assured I will now fight with every ounce of energy I have to see that Mumia Abu-Jamal receives absolutely no special treatment when he is removed from death row. I will not stand by and see him coddled — as he has been in the past — and I am heartened by the thought that he will finally be taken from the protected cloister he has been living in all these years and begin living among his own kind; the thugs and common criminals that infest our prisons. I will hold any official who attempts to help Abu-Jamal improve his situation publicly and legally accountable for as long as I live.

In closing, I’d like to say that I believe the lowest dimension of hell has been reserved for child molesters and unrepentant murderers like Mumia Abu-Jamal. After 30 years of waiting, the time remaining before Abu-Jamal stands before his ultimate judge doesn’t seem quite so far off as it once did when I was younger. I look forward to that day, so I can finally close the book on this chapter of my life and live with the gratification and assurance that Mumia Abu-Jamal has finally received the punishment he deserves for all eternity.

This is nothing short of amazing. I had no idea, but I did have a clue. I knew, for instance, that the Abu-Jamal supporters were the dregs of humanity. Oddly enough, though, I never saw a detailed report of the perverse judicial malfeasance in the case in, say, a newspaper. The incredibly brave Ms. Faulkner asks, “How is it possible that over the course of three decades all District Attorneys combined have gone 0 for several hundred on their appeals?”

How, indeed. What a sorry commentary on American justice, and what a heart-rending story of loyalty maintained! This brave woman, in an age of the disposable marriage, seeks justice for her murdered husband, 30 years down the line. She’s come to terms with the facts, but she continues to speak out. I’m overwhelmed.

There is a lot of interesting information on the Daniel Faulkner website, including transcripts and responses to claims about Mumia’s alleged innocence. And no mater what you think of the death penalty, Pro-Death Penalty debunks a lot of lies.

So sad the the victims and their families are denied justice time and again while the advocates for thugs wrap themselves in the mantle of human rights and mercy. The malice they heap on top of this murderer’s crimes makes them an accessory to his crime and disturbingly cruel. Mrs. Faulkner is a brave woman for standing up for her husband’s humanity and memory. Sadly, we cannot trust our institutions to provide justice.

Mumia should’ve been executed years ago. He’s a monster and a danger to society. To tell you the truth, I don’t believe Mumia would’ve been put to death anytime soon anyway. Just as long as he remains behind bars. His supporters are criminal-minded so it’s no surprise that they are still supporting a dangerous monster. I hate him for causing so much pain and hurt to the family and friends of Officer Dan Faulkner. I pray that Maureen Faulkner remains strong. Many, many people admire her.

BTW, if Mumia’s brother, Bruce, had testified, the outcome of this would have been entirely different. He was the one who Officer Faulkner pulled over for DUI/driving the wrong way on a one-way street. Bruce saw everything. He was sitting on the sidewalk in handcuffs. Wonder why Bruce hasn’t made one court appearance.